Category Archives: Aluminium Industry

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Coal is slowly being ousted by natural gas and renewable energies as an energy source. Even General Motors has joined the fight by eradicating the use of coal from its plants, which will allow the automobile company to prosper in a number of ways, including getting a head start on Obama’s fuel economy mandates. GM and Ford have already moved to aluminum bodies and parts for their vehicles; swapping coal for environmentally friendly energy sources is just another step forward for GM.

What does this mean? GM no longer burns coal in its facilities, instead opting for renewable energies. The company has switched coal out for solar panels, wind power, capture landfill gas (a renewable energy), and steam that has been converted from municipal waste. The technology that GM uses to burn coal, called boilers, are no longer needed and have since been shut down. According to Slate, “General Motors is already 87 percent of the way toward its goal of using 125 megawatts of renewable energy generating capacity by 2020.”

Yet, the corporation still relies on coal: it buys power from electrical facilities that burn coal; only 12 percent of GM’s energy sources are derived from renewables. But we can’t fault the car giant for making investments and efforts toward employing better environmental practices and energy mixes. GM’s small changes will result in bigger leaps to better our environment.

This past December, Ford rolled out its aluminum-body F-150 truck, the first of its kind for the company, but it seems like the new truck is just not cutting it: sales dipped for the car manufacturer’s F-Series truck line this February, and has put the company squarely behind its competitors.

Typically, the F-150 has the highest selling rate in the US; however, this February, overall sales dropped by two percent. Ford believes sales will continue to grow by 8 percent this year to 1.29 million units, compared to February 2014.

The Ford Transit light commercial vehicle and the Transit Connect compact panel van gave Ford trucks a four percent boost, even though the F-series line dropped by 1.2 percent. The Explorer full-sized crossover also gave the company’s stats a little nudge— the crossover jumped by 32 percent to sell 17,027 units.

It’s a shame that Ford’s F-150 isn’t selling as well as we’d hoped, since the company went through the entire process of shifting from a steel to aluminum body, which required new equipment and manufacturing processes. Obama has made this move a requirement for the automobile industry, mandating that manufacturers double new-car average fuel economy by 2025.

Norwegian aluminum and renewable energy company Norsk Hydro is purchasing WMR Recycling GmbH, which, according to Hydro, means Hydro will be the leading entity in aluminum scrap sorting technology.

WMR utilizes x-ray transmission and other forward-thinking technology to sort scrap; the facility has the ability to sift through 36,000 metric tons of scrap annually. The aluminum scrap will also be used to provide material for Hydro’s other Europe-based recycling plants. Hydro will employ some of WMR’s technology to improve their Neuss, Germany-based used beverage can (UBC) plant so that it runs on a closed-loop recycling system.

Hydro recycled almost 1.1 million metric tons of aluminum in 2014, but now that number will surely climb. In 2013, Hydro was working with WMR to transfer some of its aluminum scrap supply to Hydro’s recycling facilities.

Hydro’s move will reflect Norway’s high appetite for a low carbon lifestyle, which will now be aided by an intensified recycling culture.

India’s recycling rate is the one of the lowest in the world, hovering around 25%, while the US’s rate has climbed, now sitting at 90%. India’s recycling rate remains poor because the government is fairly indifferent, and because the population is unaware of the advantages of recycling. The country’s low recycling rate is a stressor on India’s primary production — constantly having to manufacture primary metals instead of recycling scrap has weakened India’s natural resources.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s main objective is to push India’s government to become generally proactive and organizations are beginning to take notice. The Metal Recycling Association of India has petitioned the government to create and enforce a metal recycling policy. Recently, there was a 2015 Metal Recycling Association of Indian International Conference in Mumbai, where the participants detailed what they believe India’s government should do to boost scrap recycling, including, “Remove the basic import duty of 5% on steel scrap, give it industry status, subsidize lending rates, allow Foreign Direct Investment and increase financing facilities,” which would make scrap recycling more attractive to bigger companies.

India is growing as a leader in the motor vehicles industries — the country is seventh-largest in the automobile industry and second-largest in two-wheeled vehicles, like scooters and motorcycles. Having a fluid recycling practice would let those industries develop even more in India. Currently, India’s stainless steel factories utilize 53% scrap in their manufacturing processes, while US factories use 76%.

For developing country like India with culture of “nothing goes wasted,” it is imperative that India extrapolates her recycling from “personal ” to “industrial.” India should look to developed countries to further understand how to advance its recycling system, so that it may take advantage of secondary materials, rather than constantly having to create primary materials, a harmful practice for the country.